Congratulations to Professor Daniel Sturm and his co-authors Dr Gabriel Ahlfeldt, Professor Steve Redding, and Professor Nikolaus Wolf for being awarded the 2018 Frisch Medal for their paper “The Economics of Density: Evidence from the Berlin Wall”, published in Econometrica.

First awarded in 1978, the Frisch Medal is presented biennially for the best applied (empirical or theoretical) paper published in Econometrica during the previous five years. The award committee commented:
“The Economics of Density: Evidence from the Berlin Wall” by Gabriel Ahlfeldt, Stephen Redding, Daniel Sturm, and Nikolaus Wolf, breaks genuinely new ground in the modeling of cities and the spatial organization of economic activity. [...] The paper provides an outstanding example of how to credibly and transparently use a quasi-experimental approach to structurally estimate model parameters that can serve as critical inputs for counterfactual policy analyses."

A formal presentation of the award will take place at the ESEM meeting in Cologne at the end of August 2018.

In the 'Year of Engineering', engineering skills are taking centre stage and the Skills Commission inquiry, which is co-chaired by Lucy Allan MP, Preet Gill MP and Professor Sandra McNally, is taking evidence as to why women are so badly under-represented within engineering courses, and whether upcoming skills system reforms will encourage more women to go into the profession.

We must go back in time to grasp this issue, both economic and societal. According to researcher Nicholas Bloom, the profound technological and structural change that has transformed business operations in recent decades is one of the aggravating factors. This American offers an unpublished reading of the widening income differences in the United States by examining the role played by employers. The figures are compelling: the 1% of the better off earn today 81 times more than half of the least rich workers, compared to 27 times more in 1980. According to Nicholas Bloom, this pay gap between companies largely explains the increase in income inequality in the United States. It also accounts for a substantial part of their rise in other countries as shown by research conducted in the United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden. "According to the US economist, the increase in salary amplitudes between companies can be attributed three factors: the rise of outsourcing, the adoption of information technology and the cumulative effects of prosperity.

How well are the tools now available working in improving our understanding of inequalities?

How could they be improved?

Are they succeeding in increasing transparency and engagement with stakeholders and users more broadly?

Effective interventions to reduce inequalities depend on understanding the nature and extent of those inequalities. Frameworks, audits and other analytical tools can help, potentially allowing us to monitor progress or the lack of sufficient progress, to understand the causes, and to design of better policies.

This seminar offers a critical engagement with three current and recent models used by statutory bodies, NGOs and independent researchers in the UK and internationally to analyse and measure different aspects of social and economic inequalities.

Who is it for?

This event provides an opportunity for research, policy and NGO communities to discuss opportunities for greater collaboration in using and developing these tools.

This event, held as part LSE Research Festival 2018: Beveridge 2.0, focused on Beveridge’s Giant of ‘want’. It addresses the thinking on poverty of five ‘Giants’ in the study of poverty over the last 100 years, who have been closely associated with LSE and who are themselves authors or co-authors of influential reports: Beatrice Webb, Brian Abel-Smith, Peter Townsend, Amartya Sen and Anthony Atkinson.

The event brought together current LSE academics known for their work on poverty and inequality. John Hills considers the ‘rediscovery of poverty’ marked by the publication of Brian Abel-Smith and Peter Townsend’s 1966 work on ‘The Poor and The Poorest and Tania Burchardt analysed the distinctive contribution of Amartya Sen to how we understand poverty across very different contexts. Lucinda Platt discussed Beatrice Webb’s ‘Minority Report on the Poor Laws’ of 1909 and Stephen Jenkins evaluated the significance of the Atkinson Commission’s 2015 Report on Monitoring Global Poverty to how we conceptualize and address poverty in a global context.